Edible Environmental Enrichments in Littered Housing Systems: Do Their Effects on Integument Condition Differ Between Commercial Laying Hen Strains?

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of additional enrichment materials (EMs; pecking stones and alfalfa bales) on the occurrence of plumage damage, skin injuries, and toe injuries, with an emphasis on the possible differences between commercial hybrid strains of laying hens. During rearing (weeks 1–18, 16 compartments, 4000 pullets) and laying periods (weeks 21–72, 24 compartments, 2808 hens) in a littered housing system, EMs were permanently provided to the study groups (EXP), while control groups (CON) did not receive additional EM. In a two-factorial study design (two groups with four strains) with 351 hens per variant, the brown egg-laying Lohmann Brown classic (LB) and Bovans Brown (BB) strains as well as the white egg-laying Lohmann Selected Leghorn classic (LSL) and Dekalb White (DW) strains were investigated. Compared to the CON, the EXP showed reduced body mass during rearing (p < 0.001) and reduced albumen consistency in the laying period (p < 0.001). Regarding integument condition, the LSL in the EXP showed more toe injuries than in the CON (p = 0.018). Remarkably, genotype-environment interactions between strains and groups were evident (p < 0.001). In groups with an EM supply, plumage damage decreased in LB (p ≤ 0.033) and LSL (p ≤ 0.005) but increased in BB (p ≤ 0.003). Moreover, there were fewer skin injuries in LSL (p = 0.001) but more in BB (p = 0.001) in groups with access to EM. In view of the diverging effects between strains, future practical recommendations for laying hen husbandry should be strain-specific.

Incubation characteristics, growth performance, carcass characteristics and meat quality of Saxonian Chicken and German Langshan bantam breeds in a free‐range rearing system

“…(2020) in 20% of Rhineland chickens from week 15 onwards was not found in our study, which, in addition to the housing conditions, may be due to the lower body masses of the SaChi and GLB chickens and, thus, the lower mechanical pressure on the foot pads of the animals. The remarkable differences in plumage and skin damage between SaChi and GLB chickens indicated the presence of breed effects in the occurrence of feather pecking and cannibalism in indigenous chicken breeds; these effects are also known to occur among laying hybrid strains (Schreiter et al., 2020b).…”

“…The scoring of the plumage was differentiated according to the back, belly (including cloacal region and ventral rump), dorsal neck and wing feathers. In addition to the four individual scores, a total plumage score was calculated for each individual animal by adding the individual scores (Schreiter et al., 2020b). The feathers on the front of the neck and the breast were not included in the scoring, as feather damage in these areas due to mechanical stress from the feeding trough does not provide strong evidence for severe feather pecking (Bilcik & Keeling, 1999).…”

Environmental Enrichments in Laying Hen Production Systems with Emphasis on Welfare and Egg Quality

“…Similarly, Liebers et al (2019) stated that environmental enrichments (pecking stones, pecking blocks, and lucerne bales) during the rearing of laying hens on litter from 5 weeks of age significantly improved plumage condition at 17 weeks of age. Schreiter et al (2020c) investigated the effect of additional environmental enrichment materials (pecking stones and alfalfa bales) on prevalence of plumage damage, skin injuries, and toe injuries while emphasizing the possible differences between laying hen genotypes (Lohmann Brown classic, Bovans Brown, Lohmann Selected Leghorn classic and Dekalb White). It was reported that environmental enrichments improved the plumage condition in all the genotypes excluding Bovans Brown groups, decreased toe injuries for the genotypes excluding Lohmann Selected Leghorn classic groups, and reduced skin injuries in Lohmann Selected Leghorn classic groups compared with non-enriched treatment.…”

“…It was argued that variations in egg quality are associated with how hens can adapt to environmental stressor of ranging behavior. Schreiter et al (2020c) stated that egg albumen consistency in laying period decreased after rearing different genotypes (Lohmann Brown classic, Bovans Brown, Lohmann Selected Leghorn classic, and Dekalb White) in environments enriched with either pecking stones and alfalfa bales. Schreiter et al (2020b) observed that environmental enrichment with pecking stones and alfalfa bales material during rearing increased the percentage of cracked eggs in different laying hen genotypes (Lohmann Brown classic and Lohmann Selected Leghorn classic), and environmental enrichment during the laying period increased egg weights.…”

“…Enhancement of hen welfare is a vital indicator of hen's livability, health, and productivity (Tainika and Şekeroğlu, 2020). However, hen welfare is affected by several factors such as environmental enrichments (Bari et al, 2020c;Iqbal et al, 2020;Schreiter et al, 2020c;), stocking density (Campbell et al, 2017;Singh et al, 2017), production system (Campbell et al, 2020a;Cronin et al, 2020;Petek and Çavuşoğlu, 2020), genetic strain (Morrissey et al, 2016;Giersberg et al, 2017;Giersberg et al, 2020;Schreiter et al, 2020c), husbandry practices (Morrissey et al, 2016), the interaction between humans and animals, etc. (Hartcher and Jones, 2017;Rufener and Makagon, 2020).…”